Sustainable Energy 1st Edition Richard Dunlap Test Bank 1

Sustainable Energy - Chapter Sustainable
6: Energy from
Energy
Nuclear
- Chapter
Fission
6: Energy from Nuclear Fission
Sustainable Energy 1st Edition Richard

Dunlap Test Bank
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Chapter 6
Energy from Nuclear Fission
6.1 Using the masses for 238Pu and 239Pu; m(239Pu) = 239.0521565 u and m(238Pu) =
238.0495534 u, show that 238Pu is not fissile.
Solution We need to calculate the energy associated with the reaction
n + 238 Pu→239 Pu
This is
E = [mn + m(238Pu) − m(239Pu)]c2

= [(1.008664904 u) + (238.0495534 u) – (239.0521525 u)] c2
= (6.066 × 10–3 u) × 931.494 MeV/u
= 5.65 MeV
As the fission barrier for heavy nuclei is typically around 6 MeV, E is not sufficient to
induce fission and hence 238Pu is not fissile.
6.2 (a) Calculate the gravitational potential associated with one tonne of coal raised to a
height of 1 km.
(b) Calculate the mass-energy from Einstein's relation associated with one tonne of coal.
(c) Compare the result of parts (a) and (b) with the chemical energy associated with one
tonne of coal.
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6: Energy from
Energy
Nuclear
- Chapter
Fission
Solution (a) From the definition of gravitational potential energy E = mgh, we find
E = (1000 kg) × (9.8 m/s2) × (1000 m) = 9.8 × 106 J
(b) From Einstein's relation E = mc2 we find
E = (1000 kg) × (3 × 108 m/s)2 = 9 × 1019 J
(c) The heat of combustion of one tonne of coal is E = 3.1 × 1010 J, clearly showing the
relative magnitudes of these three types of energy.
22
6: Energy from
Energy
Nuclear
- Chapter
Fission
6.3 Some possible process for induced fission of 235U are

(a) n + 235U → 236U → 139I + 94Y + xn
(b) n + 235U → 236U → 141Ba + 93Kr + xn
(c) n + 235U → 236U → 142Xe + 92Sr + xn
For each of these processes determine the number of emitted neutrons, x.
Solution The number of neutrons and protons must individually be conserved in each
process. On the left hand side there are 236 nucleons, consisting of 92 protons and 144
neutrons. We must determine the number of neutrons on each fission fragment on the right
hand side to determine the number of excess neutrons. We tabulate the following:
nuclide A Z N
139
I 139 53 86
94
Y 94 39 55
141
Ba 141 56 85
93
Kr 93 36 57
142
Xe 142 54 88
92
Sr 92 38 54
In all cases the sum of Z on the right hand side is equal to 92, thus conserving the number
of protons in each process. For each process the number of neutrons on the fission
fragments is determined by the sum of the values of N and the value of x is 144 minus this
sum. This information is tabulated.
fission products sum of N x

139
I + 94Y + xn 86+55=141 3
141
Ba + 93Kr + xn 85+57=142 2
142
Xe + 92Sr + xn 88+54=142 2
6.4 Using the average fission energy of 180 MeV per fission, calculate the fission energy
available from the fissile component of one tonne of natural uranium.
238 235
Solution As natural uranium consists of 99.28% U and 0.72% U the average atomic
mass is approximately
0.0072 × 235 + 0.9928 × 238 = 238.97 g/mol
As 235U is the fissile component of natural uranium, we need to determine the mass of 235U
per tonne. This is
(1000 kg) × (0.0072 × 235)/(237.97) = 7.11 kg
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6: Energy from
Energy
Nuclear
- Chapter
Fission
This quantity of 235U will contain
24
22
6: Energy from
Energy
Nuclear
- Chapter
Fission
[(7110 g)/(235 g/mol)] × (6.02×1023 atoms/mol) = 1.82 × 1025 atoms
The fission energy associated with this number of 235U nuclei will be
(1.82×1025) × (180 MeV) = 3.28 × 1027 MeV
or
(3.28 × 1027 MeV) × (1.6 × 10–13 J/MeV) = 5.25 × 1014 J.
6.5 A sample of spent fuel from a fission reactor contains 137Cs nuclei (halflife = 30 years)
which decay at a rate of 1014 decays per second. What will the decay rate be after 100
years?
Solution The radiation decay law is
N (t ) = N (0) exp (− t )
where
ln(2)
=
t1 / 2
and
t1/ 2 = 30y , then  = 0.023y −1 .
The decay rate is given by the equation
│dN(t)/dt│ = λN(0)e–λt
Since │dN(0)/dt│ = λN(0) then this can be written as
│dN(t)/dt│ = │dN(0)/dt│ e–λt
So substituting for │dN(0)/dt│ = 1014s–1,  = 0.023y −1 and t = 100 y, gives
dN(t)/dt = (1014) × [exp(−0.023 × 100)] = 1.0 × 1013 decays per second.
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unwillingly followed, and Sobieski left the plain to encounter the reproaches of his
wife.
Several writers—principally the later Polish historians, who treat him with marked
disfavour—endeavour to detect in his conduct throughout the proceedings the signs of
crafty intrigue. Yet by this last step he allowed his enemies time to
And shows his combine against him, and gave the queen’s party a fair opportunity of
fair dealing.
reviving their scattered energies. But such generosity is often the best
policy. The succeeding night and day (May 20th) were spent in a general effort to
secure unanimity; and the riches and influence of his brother-in-law, Radziwill, were
of much service to Sobieski in the Lithuanian camp. But his own popularity was still
more effectual. It had ever been the privilege of the Grand General of Poland to
quarter his army where he pleased, and pay nothing for their maintenance. Bribes had
formerly been freely taken from those districts that desired exemption,[59] but
Sobieski, unwilling to exercise such tyranny, had always quartered his army on the
frontiers. This was now remembered with gratitude. His promises to
His offers to the the republic also became the topic of admiring conversation. He
republic.
engaged to pay the pension to the queen dowager, to redeem the
crown jewels, to found a military school for the young nobility, to build two fortresses
wherever the Diet should appoint, and to furnish the regular army with six months’
pay. Early in the day two of the family of Paz came to register their opposition with
the interrex, but before night fell they had been persuaded to forego it. The next
morning Sobieski was proclaimed king amid the acclamations of both
Proclamation of Principalities, and took the name of John III. The same day a vast
Sobieski.
crowd attended him to the cathedral of St. John to return thanks for
his election.
Europe in general was less astonished at his elevation than Poland.
Opinion of At Constantinople and at Vienna alone the news was received with
Europe.
disfavour. Köprili saw less chance of recovering his conquests; and
the emperor was bitterly mortified to see upon the throne one who had always
belonged to the faction of France. Poland was daily becoming of greater importance in
the struggle between Louis and Leopold. When the republic was bleeding from the
shocks of her barbarous neighbours, and from a succession of internal troubles, it
mattered little to these great potentates who filled the throne; but now that she had
proved herself strong enough to withstand the dreaded Turk, and wise enough to offer
the crown to her victorious general, she was looked upon with a respect to which she
had hitherto been a stranger. This was fully appreciated at the Papal Court. Clement
X., besides his benediction, sent assurances of friendship to the new king; and Oliva,
the general of the Jesuits, wrote his joyful congratulations to “the pillar of the republic
and the avenger of Christendom.” It is difficult to discover how far the court of France
had a hand in his election. Its ambassador, Forbin-Janson, bishop of Marseilles,
arrived somewhat late (May 8th), and certainly brought instructions to support the
Duke of Neuberg. But he probably discovered ere long which way the tide was
setting, and, adapting himself to circumstances with a Frenchman’s ready wit, he
caused it to be supposed that he had used his influence in favour of Sobieski. Louis
XIV. followed the same course; and in an official note of the same summer claimed
this election as one more instance of the universal triumph of his policy.
The machinations of the enemies of Sobieski did not cease with the w
Schemes of the their veto. Their first move was to give notice of a law which should
king’s enemies.
oblige him to divorce his wife and marry the queen dowager. But on
this point the king was firm. “I have not yet finally promised,” said he, “to accept the
royal functions. If this is the price of your sceptre, you need not offer it.” The proposal
was soon dropped; and Eleanor, after receiving a visit from the king, retired to Thorn,
whence she still exercised a baneful influence upon the course of affairs. Four years
later (1678) she gave her hand to her old suitor, the Prince of Lorraine.
Whilst the Diet was drawing up the pacta conventa, Sobieski discovered from an
examination of his revenues that he could not fulfil his promise of paying the army for
six months. Without delay he frankly owned his inability; and his opponents made this
a pretext for inserting in the contract new restrictions on the military authority of the
king. They also wished to bind him to an eternal alliance with the court of Vienna. It
was soon known that the king would not yield to these terms; and several stormy
scenes took place in the Diet. At length the obnoxious articles were struck out; and on
the 5th June the king received the instrument of his election from the hands of the
interrex.
There now remained only the ceremony of coronation—which was a necessary
prelude to the exercise of the royal functions. But the steady advance
Danger from the of the Turks grew daily more disquieting. Caplan Pacha had rallied
Turks.
the remnants of the defeated force, and the Sultan was already
marching with a great army through Bulgaria. John saw that the delay would be
dangerous, and had the courage to disappoint the queen[60] and the whole court by
deferring the ceremony. He told the Senate that at such a time a helmet became his
forehead better than a diadem. “I know well,” said he, “that I have been elected, not to
represent the republic, but to fight for her. I will first fulfil my mission.” Touched by
his magnanimity, the Diet resolved to place in his hands at once all the powers of a
king.
Meantime the Turks, accompanied by the Tartars, had appeared in
They invade the
Ukraine.
great force before the camp at Kotzim. The Polish commander,
terrified at their numbers, soon surrendered, and the whole garrison
was put to the sword. But instead of advancing into the heart of Poland, Köprili turned
to the right into the Ukraine, where the Muscovites, who also laid claim to that
territory, now lined the Borysthenes with 100,000 men. Hearing that he was occupied
in besieging small places in the Ukraine, John promised to render a good account of
him before the close of the campaign. He kept his word. While the
Campaign of
1674.
Turks drove the Muscovites beyond the river, he suddenly appeared
in Podolia and besieged Bar. The Sultan, who was distracted by news
of intrigues at his capital and the advance of the Sophy upon Babylon, suddenly broke
up his camp, and made for Silistria. The Tartars disappeared at the sound of “the
Polish hurricane,” as they called Sobieski; and John was left to deal with the hapless
country which had but just suffered from the Ottoman invasion. He
John winters in
the Ukraine.
could see no mode of protecting its peasants from the yoke of the
nobility but to place his army in winter quarters in the
neighbourhood, and to teach the cavalry by his own example what clemency and what
self-sacrifice they ought to show towards a subject people. Resistance was only to be
expected; for his haughty hussars had never before passed a winter away from their
estates. But when they saw their king take up his abode in the miserable town of
Braclaw, where the scarcity of forage increased the hardships of the season, the Polish
cavalry submitted without a murmur.
Not so, however, did the Lithuanians. The king had assigned to Paz
The Lithuaniansthe town of Bar, the most comfortable post on the frontiers. Yet that
desert him.
general did not approve of the innovation, and taking the law into his
own hands marched home with his army. This defection was a great blow to the king.
He had begun to invest Kaminiec, and had opened negotiations for an alliance with
Muscovy. He now saw himself obliged to narrow his plans, and to confine himself to
the defensive. The desertion of Paz aroused the strongest indignation in Poland, and
he was forced to ask the king’s pardon; but he could not now repair the mischief. His
disbanded troops were amusing themselves with pillaging their own country,[61] and
there was no chance at present of rallying them round their standards.
The winter passed without any important success; and early in
Campaign of
1675.
April another large Turkish army, commanded by Ibrahim Pacha,[62]
nicknamed “Schischman” from his enormous bulk, advanced into
Volhynia. John hastily quitted the Ukraine and disposed his small forces for the
defence of Russia in a vast arc, of which Leopol was the centre. So completely was he
outnumbered that his only chance of success seemed to lie in procuring allies. He
continued to treat with the Czar, and received at Leopol with ostentatious pomp an
ambassador from the Sophy of Persia; but he could hope little from the latter, except
the chance of terrifying the Sultan by a supposed coalition with his Asiatic enemy.
Meanwhile Ibrahim had copied the fault of the preceding year by
Lethargy of the
Poles.
wasting time in small sieges, and it was not till he received a
threatening message from Köprili that he began to advance upon the
Polish force covering Leopol, which hardly amounted to 15,000 men. No exertions on
the part of the king could awaken Poland to a sense of its danger. Servitude had
numbed the senses of the peasants, and the nobles were wearied with the length of the
war. Ibrahim seemed unwilling to trust his fortune against that of Sobieski. Sitting
down before Trembowla, a strong fortress in Podolia, he sent on the Tartar Noureddin
with 40,000 men “to bring the king before him dead or alive.”
It was late in August when this detachment[63]—the flower of the
Battle of Leopol.
Turkish army—arrived at Leopol, and began to burn the suburbs. The
Poles besought the king to retire, and not risk his life in so deadly a combat. “You
would despise me,” said he, “if I were to follow your advice.” The ground in the
vicinity was undulating and covered with vineyards, and John carefully made his
dispositions in order to conceal from the enemy the smallness of his force. He planted
several hills, which he could not occupy, with the spare lances of his hussars, and
concealed squadrons in the valleys near the point of attack. Then, on the 24th of
August, amidst a storm of snow and hail which beat in the faces of the enemy, he
suddenly charged the infidels at the head of 5,000 cavalry, repeating thrice the name
of Jesus. The impetuous bravery of the Poles spread terror in the Turkish ranks, and
before nightfall the whole force, though at least eight times the number of their
assailants, had fled in disorder. The storm was so unusual for the time of year that
contemporary memoirs speak of it as miraculous; and it appears that this battle, more
than any other, contributed to cause the superstitious fear with which the Turkish
troops subsequently regarded John Sobieski.
Ibrahim was dismayed at the king’s success. He had captured the
Siege of position of Podhaic, but he could not reduce the garrison of
Trembowla.
Trembowla, commanded by Chrasonowski, a man of determined
courage. He now redoubled his assault upon that place, which must have fallen but for
the arrival of John with the Polish army. The king posted his troops to advantage and
prepared for the attack; but during the night (Oct. 6th) Ibrahim intercepted a letter to
the besieged, which informed him that the king in person was at the head of the Poles.
He at once raised the siege, and without striking a blow retreated
Retreat of the precipitately to Kaminiec, and thence across the Danube. John would
Turks.
have pursued him beyond the outskirts of Podolia, but the Polish
vanguard, dreading a winter’s campaign in the enemy’s country, set fire to the bridges,
and compelled their king to suspend his march.
The whole country clamoured for his return, and the Diet was
Return of the impatient to return thanks to its deliverer. The Vice-chancellor
king.
declared in the Senate that the king moved like a tortoise towards the
throne, but like an eagle towards the enemies of the republic. He was now ready to
gratify the general wish, and returning to Zolkiew received a number of foreign
ambassadors sent to congratulate him upon his election,—among them Lawrence
Hyde, Earl of Rochester,[64] whom Dr. South was attending as domestic chaplain. The
French ambassador solicited John’s alliance against Brandenburg and the empire, and
held out hopes of persuading the Turks to make peace. But the king deferred all fresh
engagements for the present; his grand aim in life was to save Poland from the
Ottoman grasp.
Cracow was, as usual, the scene of the coronation, which was fixed for the 2nd of
February (1676). Two days earlier, according to the Polish custom,
Burial of the two
last kings.
John followed to the grave the body of Michael, and the interest of
the ceremony was deepened on this occasion by the obsequies of
Casimir. The ex-king had died three years before, of grief, it was said, at the fall of
Kaminiec.[65] The reigns of the two deceased kings, so fruitful in misfortunes to
Poland, comprised the whole of Sobieski’s wonderful career, and it was fitting that
their royal mourner should be he to whose prowess they were chiefly indebted for
retaining the crown. The coronation took place amid general
Coronation.
rejoicings, broken only by a few murmurs when the crown was set
upon the queen’s head. It was not long before she showed her unfitness to wear it.
Two days later (February 4th) the Diet met, and was conspicuous
Diet of 1676.
for its loyal enthusiasm. The king was entreated not to lay down the
office of Grand General, but he wisely refused a privilege so invidious, and conferred
the post upon his old enemy, Demetrius Wiesnowiesçki. He displayed the same
generous spirit in his other appointments, offering the primacy to Olzowski, the
favourite of Eleanor, and the Grand Marshalate to Lubomirski, son of his old rival.
The brave Jablonowski was rewarded with the post of Second General. His elevation
caused some trouble. The Diet proposed to make these dignities triennial, which, in
the present reign at least, would have been a salutary enhancement of the royal power;
but the queen, out of gratitude to Jablonowski, worked hard in secret to defeat the
proposal. The king, though he favoured it at heart, appeared neutral; and the project
fell through.
John availed himself of the favourable temper of the Diet to take exceptional
measures for the national defence. He proposed a capitation subsidy upon all alike,
clergy as well as laity, and strongly urged the necessity of forming a permanent
infantry. Hitherto this branch of the service had been fixed at one-third of the regular
army (16,000), but it had never reached this standard, and being composed only of the
peasants and poorer nobles, commanded by foreign officers, its equipment was
disgracefully inefficient.[66] The Diet voted that the army should be raised to 73,000
men, thus augmenting it by 25,000,[67] and that of these 35,000 should be infantry. No
king had ever obtained such concessions from the nobility, but they were not granted
without a violent opposition. The old expedient was tried of drawing out the Diet, but
John defeated it by submitting to a continuous sitting, and presiding upon the throne
for forty consecutive hours. He was able to announce that the Great Elector had
promised him succours, and that he hoped for an alliance with Muscovy. The Diet did
not rise before paying him the unusual compliment of a decree that all the starosties
which he had held should remain hereditary in his family.[68]
Unfortunately their good resolutions were not carried into effect.
The king fails to
Although the Dietines ratified their proceedings, it was beyond the
levy troops.
king’s power to overcome the inertness and lethargy of the nobility.
The patriotic spirit died out at once when the magic of his personal influence was
withdrawn. Seizing upon a rumour which was industriously raised by Austria, that the
king was treating in secret with the Turks and would use the money for his own
purposes, they refused to pay the subsidy, and threw every obstacle in his way. John
hastily assembled at Leopol those troops which had not been disbanded; but, although
their number is variously stated, some even placing it as low as 10,000, it probably did
not amount to one-half of the force that the Diet had decreed.
Meanwhile, Köprili had not been idle. He assembled an army of
Armament of the
Turks.
100,000 Turks, to be accompanied by a vast host of Tartars. But his
aim was more pacific than in the former campaigns. He was beset by
the proffered mediation of the European powers, especially of Louis XIV., who
wished to evade his promise of sending armed assistance to Poland. Moreover, the
condition of Asiatic Turkey distracted his attention; his allies, the Cossacks and the
Tartars, inspired him with distrust; and he felt that his fortune was outshone by the star
of John Sobieski. The name of the Polish hero was such a terror in the Ottoman ranks
that threats alone could induce many of the officers to serve against him. Köprili
looked out anxiously for a competent general. He chose Ibrahim, Pacha of Damascus,
called “Shaitan” (Satan), from his combined bravery and cunning, and gave him
instructions to procure an honourable peace.
Ibrahim secretly hoped to do more than this, for he was confident
Invasion of
Galicia.
that he could drive the king to extremities. He pushed on at once into
Galicia and crossed the Dniester, expecting that John would attack
him; but finding that the king lay inactive at Zurawno, a small town on the left bank,
he advanced against him without delay. John called in his squadrons of horse, which
had been harassing the Tartars, and prepared to improve his position. It had been
chosen with admirable judgment. He lay with the Dniester and the mountains behind it
covering his rear, while his left rested on the town of Zurawno, and his right was
protected by woods and marshes. In front of his lines ran a rapid torrent, called the
Swiczza, which was easily fordable, and offered facilities for the construction of
entrenchments. On this task John employed his whole army, and collected all the
provisions within reach. When the seraskier appeared on the heights in his front, he
left his lines and offered him battle (September 25th); but this was declined, for all the
Turkish troops had not yet come up. Ibrahim, when he had assembled
Siege of them, formed them into a vast arc, including the town of Zurawno,
Zurawno.
the Polish army, and the wood on its right, with each of his wings
resting on the river. He then commenced a regular siege. His artillery was splendidly
handled; and his miners rapidly approached the Polish entrenchments. John at once
employed counter-mines, but the experience of the Turks in Candia gave them a vast
superiority. The king was anxious to bring on a general action, and in a skirmish on
the 29th of September the Poles had the advantage, but they lost heavily. John’s
situation was becoming desperate; the Tartars who commanded the river prevented the
arrival of provisions by that route; and the Turkish artillery made frightful havoc in his
ranks.
The liveliest alarm prevailed in Poland. The Senate called out the
Proposals of Pospolite and placed Prince Radziwill at its head; but the assembling
peace.
of such a body was necessarily slow. Meantime another engagement
took place at Zurawno (October 8th), in which 2,000 Turks were slain; but John failed
to break through the enemy’s lines, and was once nearly surrounded and cut off from
his men by a body of janissaries. When however the siege had lasted nearly twenty
days, the Tartan khan, whose dominion was menaced by the Muscovites,[69] pressed
Ibrahim to conclude a peace. The Seraskier knew the straits to which the Poles were
reduced, and he therefore sent an envoy to propose the ratification of the treaty of
Buczacz and an offensive alliance against Muscovy. John replied
Refused by the shortly that he would hang the next man who brought him such a
king.
message. The bombardment recommenced, and the soldiers
murmured against their king’s obstinacy. Paz repaired to the royal tent and announced
his intention to desert. “Desert who will,” cried John, “the Turks shall not reach the
heart of the republic without passing over my corpse.” He then rode down the ranks,
and reminding the soldiers that he had extricated them from many a worse plight, he
gaily asked them if his head were enfeebled by the weight of a crown. Yet he passed
the night in the gravest anxiety, and when morning broke (October 14th) he quitted his
lines and drew up his whole force in order of battle.
The Turks were astounded; and the Tartars cried out that there was
Ibrahim magic in his boldness. Brave though he was, Ibrahim dared not face
proposes fairer
terms. the chances of a defeat. He knew that the Pospolite was approaching;
he suspected that the Tartars had been bought over; and he saw winter
rapidly closing in. Above all, he remembered that his instructions were pacific, and
that a serious reverse might cost him his head. Before the armies
Peace of engaged, he proposed a peace upon honourable terms. No mention
Zurawno.
was now made of tribute. The Porte was to retain only Kaminiec and
a third of the Ukraine; the question of Podolia was referred to a subsequent
conference; each army was to restore its prisoners of war. It is said that Sobieski, with
the sentiments of a Christian knight, inserted an article to provide for the
establishment of a Latin guard at the Holy Sepulchre.[70] After witnessing the release
of 15,000 captives, and the departure of the Turks (October 16th), John retraced his
steps to Zolkiew. He soon encountered the Pospolite, which was advancing to his
relief, and the two armies celebrated the conclusion of peace with a grand flourish of
trumpets.
Though satisfactory, the terms were not glorious; but that they
Great services of
should have been obtained at all by a handful of men in the direst
the king.
extremities was cause enough for rejoicing. A moral triumph like this,
following so close upon a crisis so dreadful, carries with it an air of romance. Yet,
making every allowance for good fortune and the earnest mediation of his allies, we
must regard it as due in the first instance to the potency of the name of Sobieski. With
an insignificant force at his back he had conducted to a favourable issue five
successive campaigns against the Turks—four of them on Polish ground—and had
previously many times repulsed the hordes of Tartars which they had poured into the
country. By thus foiling the aggression of the Turks when at the height of their power
John III. had rendered a signal service to Europe.
The minister whose vast designs he had thwarted was now upon
Death of Köprili.
his death-bed. Seven days after the peace of Zurawno (October 23rd),
Köprili expired at Constantinople. Had it not been for Sobieski this able vizier would
have extended the dependencies of Turkey from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and
would have found a golden opportunity for his attack upon the empire. His successor
Mustapha, called “Kara,” or “the Black,” was a man of a different calibre. He owed
his advancement to the intrigues of the seraglio; he had married a daughter of the
Sultan and possessed great influence over his master; and he inherited the ambitious
dreams of Köprili without his ability to realise them.
All Europe, with the exception perhaps of Austria, rejoiced at the
Enthusiasm of
Europe.
peace of Zurawno. Madame de Sevigné, writing on the 18th of
November, 1676, expresses the general admiration for the hero of
Poland; [71] and Condé sent a special messenger to congratulate his friend. Louis XIV.
eagerly sought his alliance. He commissioned his ambassador in Poland, the Marquis
of Bethune, brother-in-law of the king, to invest him with the order of the Holy Ghost.
John imprudently accepted the honour, and thus, in spite of the enthusiasm with which
he had been received, excited general murmurs. He was accused of wearing the livery
of France, and binding the republic to follow her interests. In the Diet which
assembled the next year (January, 1677,) his opponents were clamorous. They
complained that, besides part of the Ukraine, he had given up Kaminiec, the key of the
realm; and that instead of striving to recover them, he was meditating war against
Brandenburg and Austria. They also accused him of aiming at absolute power by the
secret help of the French monarch. The majority of the Diet, however, did not forget
the dangers from which they had been rescued; and Gninski, palatine of Kulm, was
sent to Constantinople to ratify the peace of Zurawno.
No notice was taken of the other charges; yet John was undoubtedly
He supports the
the designs of France. Louis XIV. had promised assistance to the
designs of insurgents in Hungary against the emperor, and was encouraging
France. Sweden to attack the Great Elector. It is said that he gained over
Sobieski by the promise of ducal Prussia and a larger frontier on the
Baltic. At any rate the Marquis of Bethune was allowed to raise troops destined for
Hungary in the starosties of the king, while secret permission was given to the Swedes
to pass through Courland to attack the Elector.[72] Frederic William naturally resented
the attitude of Poland, and in revenge fomented some disturbances which had arisen in
Dantzic.
This prosperous centre of commerce enjoyed, as a Hanse town, a large share of
independence. Though belonging to the republic of Poland, it was governed by its
own magistrates and its own laws. A religious struggle had broken
Disturbances in out between the magistrates, who were Calvinists, and the people,
Dantzic,
who were headed by an eloquent Lutheran preacher.
Quieted by the John at once visited the city and mediated between
king.
the contending parties (September, 1677), and the
unusual spectacle was presented of a Catholic acting as arbiter in a Protestant dispute.
His moderation won all hearts, and tranquillity was soon restored. The astronomer
Hevelius, who was one of the chief citizens, entertained the king in his house, and
entitled his newly-found constellation, “Scutum Sobieski.”[73]
John was recalled from Dantzic by the serious intelligence that the
Activity of the new Grand Vizier was placing every obstacle in the way of the
Turks.
conclusion of peace. He kept the Polish envoy for months at the gates
of Constantinople; and when at length he gave him an audience, his tone was haughty
and unconciliatory. The Austrian court, fearing for itself, had done its utmost to
persuade the Porte that the peace of Zurawno was disgraceful to Turkey, and
Mustapha, who longed for military glory, encouraged the idea. His first blow,
however, was to fall on Muscovy. The Czar Feodor hastened to conclude the treaty
with Poland, which had long been pending, but he could look for no assistance from
the republic. He was worsted in the campaign which followed, but the vizier,
disgusted at the rigour of the climate, looked out for a more alluring prey. His first
thought was to reopen the war with Poland; and he announced that he should keep her
envoy as a hostage until Podolia was ceded to the Porte (September, 1678).
John now saw clearly that the danger from Turkey was still
Coldness of John
towards France.
pressing. He therefore at once withdrew his support from the French
designs in the west, and prepared to confront his old enemy. This
change in his policy is reasonable enough. He saw that the Hungarian
Reasons.
insurgents would probably call in the Porte, and in that case his
natural ally would be Austria, while from France he could expect no material help. His
judgment was most sagacious; but it was not uninfluenced by personal reasons. He
was offended at the pride of the French king, who had refused him on his accession
the coveted title of “Majesty,” and had lately treated his queen with some contempt.
Immediately after her coronation, his queen had set out for France to take the waters
of Bourbon,[74] and to display her dignity in her native country; but on her way she
encountered the French ambassador, who delicately hinted that his master could not
receive an elective queen with full honours. The “Grand Monarque” could not stoop to
receive on equal terms the daughter of the captain of his brother’s Swiss Guards. The
queen retraced her steps in great indignation, which subsequent events only tended to
increase. Through her husband she begged a dukedom for her father, the Marquis
d’Arquien, but Louis, though his language was fair, deferred compliance.[75]
Moreover, John could not but regard with disgust the scarcely concealed efforts of
France to set the Turks in motion against the house of Austria. The king himself had
throughout his life distrusted Austria and counteracted her influence in Poland, but his
chivalrous spirit would have revolted from bringing the infidel against her. He now
perceived that it was his policy to make common cause with her.
He was anxious to strike the first blow against the Turks by
His designs upon
surprising Kaminiec, which was poorly guarded; but for this the
Kaminiec.
consent of the Diet was necessary. He had to publish his universals[76]
to the Dietines describing his projects, and to debate the question in the Diet when
assembled. This year (1679) it was convened at Grodno, in Lithuania, and so stormy
was the session that it was four months before the king’s proposal passed. The Turks
were thus enabled to strengthen and re-victual the town at their leisure; and nothing
was left to the king but to send ambassadors to the European courts to propose a
general league against the Sultan.
A vast armament was in preparation at Constantinople, and no one
Arming of the in Europe knew against whom it would first be directed. Troops were
Turks.
daily arriving from the interior of Asia, and Greece was made subject
to a searching levy. It was plainly time for the European powers to show themselves
united against the common enemy, but there was little prospect of such a combination.
Louis had lately concluded a peace with the Emperor at Nimeguen (1679), but it was
scarcely more than a suspension of hostilities.
The Polish ambassador, Radziwill, had no success at the court of
Polish
Embassies in
Vienna. He could not persuade Leopold that he was in greater danger
Europe. than Poland. But his proposals were not merely defensive. He urged
the formation of a league, “which should hurl back the monster into
his native deserts, and revive from its ruins the ancient empire of Byzantium.”[77] But
when he arrived at Rome (July, 1680) he found the Pope very favourably disposed
towards a crusade. The chair was now filled by Innocent XI., an Austrian by birth,
who feared that Vienna was the object of attack, and saw at once that Italy must stand
or fall with it. He had been formerly Papal Nuncio in Poland, and in that capacity had
bestowed his blessing on the marriage of Sobieski. He now promised his hearty aid to
the king, whom he styled, “The invincible lieutenant of the God of armies, that brazen
wall against which all the efforts of the barbarians have been dashed in pieces.” He
agreed forthwith to furnish a large subsidy.
This close alliance with the Pope widened the breach between
Alliance with the
Pope.
Sobieski and the court of France. There could be no peace between
such haughty characters as Innocent XI. and Louis XIV., and they
were often at open enmity about the Gallican clergy. Louis hated the Pope above all
things for his sympathy with the Austrian court. He now sought to counteract his
influence by sending as ambassador to Warsaw Forbin-Janson, at this time bishop of
Beauvais, who was to be assisted by Vitry, a man of great resource.
When the king assembled the next Diet at Warsaw (Jan. 1681) he
Diet of 1681. found the French party for the first time arrayed against him. He had
to report that his embassies had met with complete success only at Rome, but that
Savoy and Portugal had sent him their good wishes. The majority of the Diet
supported him in his schemes against the Porte; but French intrigue protracted the
session for months, and finally dissolved it by the veto on a frivolous pretext.
Indignant at these proceedings, Innocent XI., during his lifetime, withheld from
Forbin-Janson the Cardinal’s hat, which had been promised him at the accession of
Sobieski. Fortunately, however, the Grand Vizier suddenly assumed a
Peace with peaceful attitude towards Poland, and sent an envoy with conditions
Turkey.
which she could honourably accept. Mustapha was evidently bent on
some more vast design; but though he studiously concealed its nature, John seems to
have divined it from the first.
He spent the two succeeding years in strengthening and
1681-2. disciplining his army, and in those peaceful employments to which he
was so much attached. At a wild spot, six miles from Warsaw, he constructed his
palace of Willanow, and introduced on his estate the Dutch system of farming. For a
time all the clamours of faction were hushed; but it was only the calm which heralds
the approaching storm.
Louis XIV. had never abandoned his encroachments upon the
Designs of Louis
XIV.
empire. At the end of 1681 he availed himself of a legal fiction,
created by his own “Chambers of Reunion,” to occupy Strasburg,
Casale, and other important towns on the imperial frontier. The Diet of Ratisbon
vehemently protested against this spoliation, but in vain. They did not dare to provoke
him to open war; for it was known that his envoys were strongly urging the Turks to
invade Austria. His plan seems to have been to acquire the glory of saving the Empire
after the fall of its capital, and to exact in return for his services large territorial
concessions. His ambition was to have the Dauphin proclaimed king of the Romans.
At length his policy seemed on the point of success. Kara
The Turks
protect Hungary.
Mustapha threw off the mask (1682), and declaring Hungary tributary
to the Sultan, announced his intention of protecting the new province.
Count Emeric Tekeli, who had ably headed its revolt since 1678, was invested with
the caphtan as hospodar. Leopold vainly endeavoured, by his minister
Schemes of
Leopold.
Caprara, to obtain a renewal of the peace made with the Turks in
1664; but the influence of France in the divan was too strong for him.
He then turned to the Diet at Ratisbon;[78] but its counsels were divided, the western
electors being in favour of war with France. His only hope seemed to be an alliance
with Poland, yet his relations with the king were not cordial, and he had lately refused
his offer of a league. He made the attempt, however, and succeeded beyond his hopes.
John was convinced that the peace which he had concluded with the Turks was merely
temporary. It therefore seemed his duty to strike at once while he could be sure of an
ally. Such a course was in keeping with his life-long purpose to curb the Ottoman
power. It also agreed well with the hatred which his queen had conceived against the
court of France, and the promise of an archduchess for his son was not to be despised.
Louis left no stone unturned to divert him from his resolution. He
Offers of Francetempted him with the provinces of Silesia and Hungary, to become
to the king.
the property not of the republic but of the king and his heirs, if he
would join him against the Empire; and finding him proof against his
French offers he began a conspiracy to dethrone him. On the assembling of
conspiracy
against him. the next Diet (January 27th, 1683) the heat of parties was tremendous.
When Leopold’s ambassador, the Count of Walstein, and Palaviccini,
the Papal Nuncio, had stated their proposals of alliance, the deputies in the pay of
France put in their protest. Besides placing every obstacle in the way of public
business, they appealed to the outside public. Pamphlets appeared daily in which the
policy of the king was warmly condemned. The selfish cabinet of Austria, which had
refused to save Poland, was declared her eternal enemy, and the nobles were warned
that the king could not ally himself with such a court without imbibing its despotic
views.
The opposition gathered strength, and the consequences might
Discovered by have been serious had not the king fortunately intercepted some
the king.
letters of the French ambassador, which disclosed the details of his
plot (March). He read these letters in full Diet, and their contents excited the utmost
indignation. The ambassador boasted that through Morstyn, the Grand Treasurer, he
knew all the secrets of the cabinet, that he had bought over numbers of the principal
nobles, whose names he gave, and that the nation was so venal that he felt certain of
destroying the league. He added that the king had rejected all his offers, but that he
trusted to make him powerless. Among the nobles mentioned were Jablonowski, now
Grand General of Poland, and Sapieha, who, since the death of Michael Paz, had been
Grand General of Lithuania. The latter belonged to a family upon which the king had
showered his favours.
John used this information with wonderful tact. He at once
His tact.
declared that the ambassador, to show his zeal to his master, had
evidently slandered the grandees; Morstyn alone, whose guilt was proved by a letter in
his own hand, deserved the punishment of treason. The king concluded by saying that
he trusted the Diet would help him to show the French king that the Polish nation was
not altogether venal. The speech was received with shouts of applause, and the
suspected nobles were now foremost in supporting the king. A similar change took
place in the nation, and the French ambassador found it unsafe to go abroad without
an escort. The Grand Treasurer would have been brought to trial if he had not escaped
to France.
The immediate result of this discovery was the conclusion of an
Alliance with the
empire.
alliance, offensive and defensive, with Austria (March 31st). Leopold
bound himself to bring 60,000 men into the field; the republic was to
furnish 40,000. There was an express stipulation that neither party should apply to the
Pope for leave to break his oaths. The Papal Nuncio procured the addition of a clause,
by which John bound himself to command his troops in person.[79] Leopold in return
conceded to him that title of “Majesty” which he had so long withheld.
This treaty was a serious blow to the policy of Louis XIV. Forbin-Jan
Exertions of quitted Poland in disgust, comforted his master by the assurance that
Sobieski. John was far too unwieldy to take the field. The same idea prevailed
throughout Europe, and especially in the Turkish camp. He was now
so stout that he required aid to mount his horse; but he had not lost one spark of his
youthful fire. His army needed complete reorganisation, and he spent several hours
each day in the field. He did not neglect measures of policy. He proposed to the
Emperor the extension of the league, and confided to him his favourite scheme of
reviving a republic in Greece. By that means alone, he thought, the Turkish empire
could be confined within bounds. He sent an embassy to the Sophy of Persia, but
could not persuade him to declare war against the Porte.[80] He then tried to mediate
between the Emperor and the insurgents in Hungary, and succeeded so far as to obtain
a promise from Tekeli that Moravia should be left untouched.[81] Finally he tried to
promote a good understanding between France and Austria, but Louis sullenly refused
his mediation.
The preparations of the Grand Vizier were now complete, and in
The Vizier’s the spring he advanced his vast host to Essek, in Hungary. He had
forces.
under his standards at least 300,000 combatants[82] and 300 pieces of
artillery. He was accompanied by Selim Gieray, the terrible Tartar khan, and by a
crowd of his nomad horsemen.
The Emperor could scarcely realize the peril in which he stood. He
Rapid advance reckoned that his frontier fortresses would detain the Turks for at
of the Turks
upon Vienna. least two campaigns. Fortunately Sobieski, by means of a letter which
his Cossack spies intercepted[83] in Bulgaria, was enabled to assure
him that Vienna would be the first point of attack. This intelligence was soon put
beyond a doubt. The Duke of Lorraine, general of the Imperial forces, who with
scarcely 30,000 men was covering Upper Hungary, was compelled to retreat. The
whole Turkish army continued to advance by forced marches, leaving the fortresses in
their rear; and Lorraine had barely time to throw 8,000 infantry into Vienna and retreat
beyond the Danube, before 50,000 Tartars, the advanced guard of Mustapha, appeared
at the gates (July 9). Leopold had profited by Sobieski’s warning to demolish the
extensive suburbs where the nobility resided, but the city was wholly unprepared for
defence.
The night before Lorraine’s arrival the Emperor himself with his
Panic at Vienna.
court fled precipitately to Linz, and thence to Passau. The peasants of
the southern plain were flocking into the city by hundreds, while many of the citizens
followed the Emperor in his flight. It was left to Lorraine, with the
Measures for
defence.
governor, the intrepid Count Stahremberg, to concert measures of
resistance. The fortifications were hastily repaired, and the
counterscarp protected by thick palisades, but it was doubtful whether they could
stand an assault, owing to the neglect of a long security. A body of 5,000 citizens was
formed to assist the garrison, which did not amount to 14,000 men. A week later (July
14) the Grand Vizier occupied the plain, and opened the trenches before the city.
Meanwhile all Europe, and especially Italy, was seized with
Terror of
Europe.
consternation at the rapid march of the Turks. The plans of the King
of France, who had advanced his army to the Rhine, were somewhat
disconcerted. Finding himself pointed at as the cause of the invasion of Christendom,
[84] he made a show of magnanimity, and suspended his threatened blow. It is even
said that he offered the Emperor a contingent of 80,000 men, which was rejected with
becoming scorn; but the statement seems improbable.
The Pope sent pressing messages to Sobieski to bring his succours
Sobieski urged tobefore it was too late. The Emperor also, writing with unwonted
hasten his
march. deference, begged him to place himself at the head of the Imperial
troops. “However inferior we are in number,” he says, “your name
alone, so terrible to the enemy, will ensure a victory.” He added that his troops were
waiting at Tuln, fifteen miles north-west of Vienna, and that at that point a bridge had
been constructed over the Danube.[85] Lorraine, generously forgetting their old rivalry
for the crown of Poland, wrote that he should be proud to serve under such an hero.
His own skill had given some hope to a declining cause. Assisted by some Polish
cavalry, he had captured the bridge of Presburg from Tekeli, but his force was too
small to do any damage to the besiegers.
It is indeed a marvel that Vienna did not fall almost at once. Within
Siege of Vienna.a week of the opening of the trenches, the besiegers had reached the
palisade of the counterscarp, and, as cannon could not be used for its defence, many of
the garrison lost their lives in a hand-to-hand combat. On the 7th of August the
counterscarp was captured after an engagement in which both sides suffered great
loss. The besieged especially lost many officers, and the brave governor was seriously
wounded. From this time forward the city must have succumbed if the Vizier had
ordered a general assault. Mustapha knew this, but he imagined that the booty would
be enormous, and he did not wish it to fall into the hands of his soldiers. He had
pitched his vast pavilion in the gardens of the Emperor’s palace, called the Favourite,
and here he passed his days in the pursuit of pleasure. His miners advanced steadily,
but in other respects he was inactive.
At the first news of the danger of Vienna Sobieski hastened to
Measures of
Sobieski.
Cracow, where his army was assembling. His hussars answered his
summons with alacrity, but the Lithuanians were slow to take the
field. He had no intention of waiting for them, although the troops under his orders
were scarcely half the complement of 40,000. He sorely needed funds for their
equipment; but as the Papal subsidies had not arrived,[86] he gave lavishly from his
private treasury. He had not intended to take his Turkish body-guard; but they begged
leave to accompany him, and offered to give hostages.[87]
On the 15th of August he quitted Cracow, accompanied by his son
His rapid march
to the Danube.
James, and having reviewed his troops at Tarnowitz, in Silesia
(August 18), pushed on for the Danube. Leaving his main body at the
head of 2,000 horse, he traversed like a whirlwind the plains of Moravia, and arrived
at Tuln on the 2nd of September. The prince who was reported too infirm to take the
field, had covered on horseback 350 miles in little more than ten days. Finding the
bridge unfinished and scarcely half the Imperial forces assembled, he could not
restrain his impatience. “Does the Emperor take me for an adventurer?” he exclaimed
angrily. “I have left my army to command his. It is not for myself, but for him I fight.”
Three days later (September 5th) the Polish army under Jablonowski appeared, and
soon afterwards the succours from Bavaria and Saxony.
Before the king’s arrival there had been divisions of opinion among
Forces of the the imperial generals; now all men cheerfully obeyed his orders. The
allies.
whole force amounted to 70,000 men, of whom 21,000 were from
Austria, 18,000 from Poland, and 31,000 from Bavaria, Saxony, and the Circles. Of
these at least 38,000 were cavalry. John had never commanded an army of nearly this
strength, and he was confident of success. He bade the Imperialists consider not the
vast numbers of the enemy but the incapacity of their general. “Would any of you,” he
asked, “have suffered the construction of this bridge within five leagues of your
camp? The man cannot fail to be beaten.”
In his letters to the queen, which have most fortunately been
Exertions of the
king.
preserved,[88] we can follow the inmost thoughts of the great
commander during these most anxious days. He twice remarks with
evident pleasure that the German troops obey him better than his own. At the same
time he is disgusted with the trifling squabbles over etiquette which occupy so much
of his time. Even his necessary duties allow him no leisure. “Continual harangues, my
interviews with the Duke of Lorraine and the other chiefs, innumerable orders to be
given, prevent me not only from writing, but from taking food and rest.”[89] Yet his
unreasonable consort, for whom his devoted fondness appears in almost every line,[90]
complains that he does not read her letters. “I must complain of you, my dear, my
incomparable Mariette.... Can you say seriously that I do not read your letters? The
fact is that I read each of them three times at least; first, when they arrive, secondly, as
I go to bed, when at last I am free, and, thirdly, when I set myself to answer them.... If
sometimes I fail to write at length, can you not explain my haste without the help of
injurious suppositions? The armies of two continents are but a few miles from each
other. I must think of everything; I must provide for the smallest detail.”
On the 6th of September the army crossed the Danube. The
Passage of the
Danube.
splendid equipment of the king’s hussars attracted universal
admiration; and his ill-clad infantry looked especially mean by
contrast. His officers entreated him to allow it to cross by night, but he would not
consent. Whilst one of the worst regiments was passing over, “Look at this well,” he
cried to the spectators; “it is an invincible body which has sworn never to be clothed
but with the spoils of the enemy.” At these words the men, who had hung their heads
in shame, marched on erect with cheerful confidence. During the crossing of the
bridge a note arrived from Stahremberg with the simple words, “No more time to
lose.” The miners were already under the Emperor’s city palace, and numbers of the
garrison were dying of dysentery.
John called a council of war to decide the route which should be
Ascent of the
Kahlemberg.
taken. Between him and Vienna rose the lofty ridge called the
Kahlemberg; and it was necessary either to go round it by the main
road, which was flanked by the Turkish cannon, or to climb direct to the summit. John
chose the latter route; but it proved more difficult than he had supposed. Three days
were consumed in the ascent. All the heavy baggage had to be left behind, and of the
artillery only the Polish light guns could be dragged up. At length, on the evening of
the 11th, the Polish hussars lighted their fires among the woods which crowned the
heights, and were answered by joyful signals from the cathedral of St. Stephen. The
Turks were struck with consternation. The Grand Vizier, though he
Apprehension of
the Turks.
had certain intelligence of the ascent,[91] neglected to oppose it, partly
because he despised the Christian army, and partly because he wished
to take Vienna before their eyes. But he could not inspire his troops with his own
braggart assurance. During the night John’s prisoners, whom he had set free by design,
came into the camp and spread the news that the king of Poland was commanding in
person. Mustapha loudly expressed his disbelief; but he could not prevent the spread
of a panic. At break of day he determined to lead the janissaries to a general assault,
while he detached the spahis and auxiliaries to confront the relieving force.
From the castle of Leopoldsberg about sunset Sobieski surveyed
Confidence of the scene with mixed feelings. He saw that he would have to make his
Sobieski.
advance over most precipitous and difficult ground; but his
experienced eye was not dismayed either by the imposing array of the Turkish tents or
by the multitude of their occupants. Writing to the queen the same night he shows his
old confidence: “Humanly speaking, and while putting all our hope in God, one must
believe that a general, who has not thought of concentrating or entrenching himself,
but is encamped as if we were a hundred miles off, is predestined to be beaten.” He
complains, however, that he had not been warned of the steepness of the descent, and
must change his order of battle. During the night the noise of the Turkish cannon was
such that “we could not close an eye,” and the wind was so high that “it seemed as if
the Vizier, who is reputed a magician, had unchained against us the powers of the air.”
When day dawned on Sunday, the memorable 12th of September,
Advance of the the wind fell, and the heat was most severe. John attended mass with
allies.
the Duke of Lorraine in the old church of Leopoldsberg, and received
the sacrament. He then mounted his horse, and ordered the advance.
Their order of The right wing was occupied by the Poles, under Jablonowski; the
battle.
centre by the Germans, under the Prince of Waldeck; the left wing by
the Imperial troops, under the Duke of Lorraine.[92] The king directed the whole; but
his post was in the right wing.
The ground in their front was broken by gullies and rough
Battle of Vienna.
eminences, and here and there by rude parapets of earth, which served
as the boundaries of the vineyards. The Turks in vain attempted to defend these
positions; they were driven from point to point by the impetuous hussars, and the
Polish artillery, dexterously handled by Konski, did such execution that by midday the
army had reached the plain. After an interval of rest the advance was continued, and
the villages of Nussdorf and Heligenstadt were carried by the hussars at the lance’s
point, not without some loss. At five o’clock the order was given for a halt, and John
proposed to rest his wearied troops before the final struggle.
Meanwhile the Vizier, who had been gallantly repulsed by the besieged, had
hastened to check the retreat of the Turks. He saw with uneasiness the horse-tails on
the Polish lances, and feared that after all the king might be present. At a conspicuous
point in the lines he caused the hoisting of a red pavilion, which was surmounted by
the standard of the Prophet, and tried to raise the spirits of his troops by his own cool
assurance. Seating himself under its shade with his two sons and the Tartar khan he
ordered coffee to be served.
The Polish cavalry had advanced so near that John could detect these movements
with his field-glass. Provoked at this ostentatious contempt, he bade his artillerymen
aim exclusively at the red pavilion, and offered fifty crowns for each successful
volley. He also detached a body of hussars to seize a position from which they could
fire with more effect. The cavalry dashed forward with the cry of “Sobieski for ever,”
and drove the Turks headlong from the spot. “By Allah,” exclaimed the Tartar khan,
as he heard their shouts, “the king is really among them.” The Turks had also heard
the dreaded name; and all at once a terrible panic arose throughout the camp.[93]
“They are defeated,” cried Sobieski, as he saw them waver, and ordering a general
advance, he put himself at the head of the Poles with the words, “Non nobis, non
nobis, Domine exercituum, sed nomini tuo da gloriam!” The shock of
Rout of the the charge was tremendous, and none but the spahis resisted it. These
Turks.
brave horsemen, surrounded by the rout, stood their ground, but were
cut in pieces. The Vizier, weeping like a child, besought the Khan to save him. “I
know the King of Poland,” answered Selim; “I told you that we should have to make
way before him.”[94] Joining in the flight they effected their escape, although the
Vizier was almost captured.
Night had now come on, and John was anxious to secure the camp in case the
enemy should return. He therefore discouraged the pursuit, and forbade pillage on
pain of death. He passed the night, like his soldiers, in the open air,
The Vizier’s although he took possession of the Vizier’s quarters. In the morning
quarters.
he inspected this vast bazaar of Eastern luxury, which he describes as
occupying a space “as large as Warsaw or Leopol.” Mustapha had come, in fact,
prepared for a triumph. He is said to have contemplated creating an empire by making
himself emperor of the French. He had brought every requirement for making Vienna
a Turkish arsenal, and had not omitted the materials for his mosques.[95] Writing to the
queen on September 13th, the king says: “The Vizier has taken nothing but his horse
and the clothes on his back. He has left me his heir.... His jewels alone are worth some
thousands of ducats.... You cannot say to me, my heart, as the Tartar women often say
to their husbands, ‘You are not a man, for you have brought me no booty.’... The town
could not have held out more than five days. The imperial palace is riddled with
bullets; those immense bastions, split in pieces and half falling, look terrible.”
The losses of the two armies in the action have been variously
Losses of the two
armies.
stated. Talenti, whom John sent to the Pope with what was believed to
be the standard of the Prophet, informed his Holiness that at least
40,000 Turks had perished.[96] Voltaire, with as little truth, states the number at 600.
[97] It is evident from the letters of the king, which speak of the slain as making the
neighbourhood unhealthy, that nearly 10,000 must have been slain.[98] The loss of the
Poles alone was estimated at more than 1,000, and the allies probably lost in
proportion.
About midday the king entered Vienna through the breach. He was
Entry of Sobieski
into Vienna.
received with acclamations. Multitudes thronged his horse, and in
spite of the frowns of their superiors openly compared him with their
fugitive monarch. He entered the church of the Augustine Friars, and, as there was no
priest at hand, he himself chanted the Te Deum. Passing on to the cathedral of St.
Stephen, he remained long prostrate before the altar, while the same ceremony was
performed with greater pomp. Then a discourse was preached to the assembled crowds
from the text—“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” On leaving
the building, he could scarcely pass through the masses of men who pressed upon him,
and begged to kiss his victorious hands. Afterwards he dined in public with Count
Stahremberg, and then returned to his quarters, declaring with truth that this was the
happiest day of his life.
He took an almost malicious pleasure in writing at once to inform
Joy of all Louis XIV. of his success. He told him that he felt it his particular
Europe,
excepting the duty to report to the most Christian king “the victory which had been
French king. gained, and the safety of Christianity.” So disgusted was Louis at the
collapse of his plans that he could not trust himself to answer the
letter. The French civil journals, in noticing the raising of the siege, speak slightingly
of the King of Poland, and try to attribute all the credit to the Count of Stahremberg.
[99] But no one was deceived by these manœuvres. All Europe resounded with the
praises of Sobieski. From every Catholic pulpit he was eulogised as the bravest
defender of the Church. Filicaia and other Italian poets sang of his glory in rapturous
strains. Innocent XI. received his envoys with the highest honours, and ordered the
standard of the Prophet to be borne in triumph throughout Italy. Queen Christina, who
was then resident at Rome, after complimenting the Pope, wrote Sobieski a
remarkable letter, in which she declared that she now felt for the first time the passion
of envy; she calls him emphatically the greatest king in the world, and displays by
other insinuations her hatred for Louis XIV.[100] It is painful to relate
Ingratitude of
Leopold.
the conduct of the Emperor. He, who should have been the first to
thank and congratulate his deliverer, was in no hurry to meet him face
to face. Entering the city on the 14th, he contrasted with anger the coolness of his
reception with the enthusiasm shown to the King of Poland; and it was only when he
heard that John was about to continue the pursuit that he was prevailed on to consent
to the interview. His punctilious scruples as to his demeanour towards an elective
sovereign disgusted his German allies, and the Duke of Lorraine declared that he
ought to receive the king with open arms. At length it was agreed, on the proposition
of Sobieski, that they should meet on horseback a few paces in front of the Polish
army. Let us hear the king’s own account to the queen. “I will not
His interview draw you the portrait of the Emperor, for he is well known. He was
with Sobieski.
mounted on a bay horse of Spanish breed; he had a close coat richly
embroidered, a French hat with a clasp and white and red feathers, a belt mounted
with sapphires and diamonds, and a sword to match. We saluted each other with
politeness; I made him my compliments in a few words of Latin; he answered in the
same tongue in choice terms. Being thus face to face I presented my son, who
approached and saluted him. The Emperor merely raised his hand to his hat; I was
astounded at it. He did the same with the senators and generals, and even with his
connection, the Palatine of Beltz.[101] To avoid the scandal and the carping of the
public, I addressed a few more words to the Emperor; after which I turned my horse,
we saluted each other, and I rode back to the camp.” John here evidently conceals as
far as possible the chagrin he felt at the awkward silence of the Emperor, and his
distance towards Prince James, his prospective son-in-law. Another account says that
he sternly reproved a Palatine, who advanced to kiss the Emperor’s foot, and that he
said significantly as he turned away, “Brother, I am glad to have done you this small
service.”[102] After the Grand General had shown him the Polish troops, the Emperor
returned to Vienna; and two days later sent a jewelled sword to Prince James, and
explained that his grateful emotions had deprived him of the power of speech.
But the Emperor’s ingratitude did not stop here. A day or two after
Shameful the battle, the Poles (like the French after the battle of St. Gothard)
treatment of the
Poles. found it difficult to obtain forage or provisions, and they were not
allowed to bury even their most illustrious dead in the cemeteries of
the city. The king notices bitterly that, since the arrival of the Emperor, everyone
shunned them as if they had the plague.[103] The Poles were furious at this studied
neglect, and besought John to lead them back at once to Poland. “Our subalterns regret
that we have succoured the Emperor; they wish now that the proud race had perished
beyond hope of resurrection.”[104]
So seldom had the army served beyond the frontiers, that its discipline, never
strictly enforced, was now scarcely regarded; and numbers left the ranks and took the
nearest road to their homes. John sympathised with his soldiers, but he had the ardour
of a crusading hero, and he felt himself bound by his oath to pursue the infidel, and
“strike a second decisive blow.”[105] His letter of the 13th of
John’s anxiety to
follow up the
September to the Marquis of Grana, shows the high hopes with which
victory. his glorious victory had inspired him. He expresses his belief that the
time had come for the collapse of the Sultan’s power, and urges that
further successes in Hungary might produce revolts in the heart of his empire.[106]
John has been most unjustly accused of finding a Capua in the Vizier’s tents.[107] The
fact is, that during the whole of the campaign, the Poles were in the van. The king was
disgusted at the backwardness of the imperial court, though his high and simple nature
failed to discern its motive. “It is enough to make one die a thousand times a day,” he
says, “to see so many opportunities slip away.”[108]
The fact was that Leopold shrank from sending his victorious
Suspicions of the
Emperor.
neighbour into a rebellious province of his empire. Yet he dared not
stop him. His suspicions were increased when John received
overtures from Tekeli, the Hungarian leader, and attempted to intercede for him. The
Emperor’s coldness had so far alienated his German allies, that the Elector of Saxony
withdrew his troops, and the Elector of Bavaria threatened to do the same. He did
nothing to recognise the services of the Duke of Lorraine. He coveted the spoil, and
even had the assurance to suggest, through his head groom, that John should present
him with some of the Vizier’s horses. The gift was made and received as a due. The
king also made such handsome presents to many of the German princes, that he gaily
tells the queen she will have to be content with the buffaloes and camels.[109] His
general distrust of the Austrians was such that he deposited his part of the spoil with
the Jesuits.[110]
At length (September 17), weary of waiting for the Imperial troops, he started for
the Danube. His design was to attack Lower Hungary, which had been a Turkish
province for a hundred and fifty years, and to invest Buda, its capital.
John advances Thither the Vizier had retired to rally the remains of his army, and
into Hungary.
was avenging his defeat by the execution of a crowd of pachas. The
Turks could hardly believe that the Christians would retaliate at once by invading their
territory, and Sobieski’s advance created the utmost alarm. But he was unhappily
delayed at Presburg by a fever[111] which attacked his troops and produced such
distress as to shake his resolution to proceed. Another cause of his
Intrigues of the chagrin was the scarcely concealed intriguing of the queen among the
queen.
troops to force him to return. She tried to persuade him that she was
in constant fear of the troops of Tekeli. In two admirable letters[112] he tells her the
powerful motives which induce him to continue the campaign. He shows her that the
Poles are crushing their national enemy without the cost of one sou to the republic,
and declares that, since the Christian armies have elected him their generalissimo, he
will remain even if his countrymen desert him to finish the campaign. “I have devoted
my life,” he says, “to the glory of God and to this holy cause, and to that I will
adhere.”
After a few days his troops were able to resume their march, and they were joined
by the Imperialists on the 2nd of October. They crossed the second arm of the Danube,
and followed its course on the left bank. The first Turkish fortress in their way was
Strigonia, called by the Hungarians Gran, a place of great strength on the right bank,
communicating by a bridge with the fortified suburb of Parkan on the opposite side.
The vanguard of the Polish cavalry, always a march in advance of the infantry and the
Imperialists, had descended the hills to reconnoitre this fort, when suddenly a large
Turkish force issued from the works and appeared in their front (October 7th.) Before
the Poles could form in line they had to sustain a tremendous charge,
He is defeated at and were put to flight. The king, who was close behind with the main
Parkan.
body, could not rally the fugitives, and found himself obliged, with
his 4,000 hussars, to charge the enemy in his turn. His onset was unsuccessful. The
Turks opened their lines to enclose the Poles, and this caused a panic which ended in a
rout. The king and his personal escort strove in vain to stem the rush of the Turks; they
were swept along in the mêlée. The pursuit was hot; and the king, who was one of the
last to turn his horse, was in great danger. A spahi raised his scimitar to strike him, but
was hewn down before his blow fell. John was hurried along breathless, scarcely able
to hold the reins, and jostled by the mad haste of his flying troops. At length the
Imperialists appeared, and the Turks desisted from the pursuit. The king lay down
upon a bundle of hay, sorely bruised, but more afflicted in mind than in body. It was
the first defeat he had sustained, and it was embittered at first by the supposed loss of
his son, who however escaped unwounded. When the Austrians came up, with sorrow
in their faces and joy at their hearts, he raised himself with dignity, and said,
“Gentlemen, I have been well beaten, but I will take my revenge with you and for
you.” His Cossack infantry, who heard that he had perished, bewailed him as a father;
and he was deeply touched by their devotion.[113] Several historians have asserted that
he brought on this engagement in order to crown himself with glory before the arrival
of his allies; but his letter to the queen after the battle shows beyond a doubt that his
cavalry had orders not to fight, and that the vanguard were taken unawares.[114]
The Poles hastily buried their dead in order to conceal their losses, and were so
dispirited that the king could scarcely persuade them to wipe out the defeat. Although
three days after he says that his body is “as black as a coal,”[115] his
Great victory of
Sobieski at
exertions were unremitting to prepare his army for a grand attack.
Parkan. The Turks, as he had expected, were elated at their victory. A report
spread widely among them, which even reached the European courts,
that the hero had been slain; and they took a fresh lease of courage. The Vizier sent
them reinforcements; and when, two days later (October 9th), the Christian army
defiled into the plain of Parkan, they found a large force drawn up to receive them.
The same morning the Turks commenced the attack, and repeatedly charged the left
wing commanded by Jablonowski. They were beaten back with splendid courage; the
steady advance of the king with the right wing upon the fort of Parkan threw them into
confusion; and when the Christians charged in their turn, the Turks gave way on all
sides. The fort was taken by storm, and no quarter was given;[116]
Storming of the
fort.
numbers of fugitives were drowned in the Danube; several pachas
were captured, and at least 40,000 Turks perished.
Writing to the queen on the following day, John speaks of the victory as “even
greater than that of Vienna.” The Vizier was seized with dismay, and
Flight of the fled precipitately to Belgrade. His flight enabled the king to exclaim
Vizier.
with pride that now at last, after two hundred years of slavery,
Hungary was delivered from the infidel. He adds, “This has surpassed my expectation,
and I believe that of my contemporaries.”[117]
John was anxious at once to lay siege to Buda, which he regarded
Capture of as the goal of the campaign, but the Duke of Lorraine persuaded him
Strigonia.
to begin with Strigonia. This was one of the strongest fortresses in
Hungary, and had been occupied by the Turks for a hundred and forty years. Yet the
place surrendered in a fortnight, although the garrison was composed of 5,000
janissaries. Well might the Turkish pachas exclaim to the Poles that their king was
raised up by God to be the scourge of Islam.[118]
John could now no longer resist the eagerness of his nobles to return to Poland.
Early in November the armies separated, and the Poles retraced their
Return of the
Poles.
steps through Hungary. Before their departure the king had
endeavoured to mediate between Tekeli and the commissioners of the
Emperor, but the sole favour which he could obtain for the insurgents was the promise
of a general amnesty, and his disinterested efforts only resulted in increasing
Leopold’s suspicions of his motive. Yet he could not give up the
His efforts on
behalf of the
attempt; he longed to establish the strong barrier of a free people
Hungarians. against the Turkish advance; and as a last resource he begged for the
help of the Holy See. In his instructions to his minister at Rome,[119]
he claims this favour from the Imperial Court as his due, and indignantly disowns the
unworthy motives imputed to him. “The sole interest of his Sacred Majesty is to rally
the nations against the pagans. For that end he demands that the nation which he has
re-conquered for Christendom should be treated after a Christian fashion.” But the
Pope was so closely bound to the policy of Leopold that he cared not to interfere; and
nothing was done to restore the ancient liberties of Hungary. John was deeply
indignant, but his conscience would not permit him to insist on this concession as the
price of his sworn alliance.
His friendly relations with Tekeli were broken off by the rapine of
Their hostility to
the Lithuanians, who, on hearing of the spoils of which their tardiness
his army.
had deprived them, had set off in haste towards the south, and were
plundering Upper Hungary. The inhabitants, regarding John as responsible for these
reckless freebooters, and knowing nothing of his efforts in their behalf, shut
themselves up in their towns and treated him as an enemy. Though he could scarcely
obtain provisions for his troops, he was loth to relinquish his design of quartering
them in Hungary. But the queen had hit on a new method of preventing him, which
was more effective than the murmurs of his men. She suddenly ceased to answer his
letters. “For five weeks,” he complains, “I really have not known whether there is a
Poland in the world.”[120]
He closed the campaign gloriously on the anniversary of Kotzim
Triumphal entry (November 11th), by capturing Schetzin after a few hours’ siege, and
into Cracow.
then returned home through the Carpathian Mountains. The ground
was frozen so hard that the tents could not be pitched, and it was Christmas-eve before
the victorious army, laden with the spoils of the East, entered Cracow in triumph. A
few days later the Grand Vizier received with resignation his sentence of death from
the Sultan, and ere long the head which had dreamed of the conquest of Europe was
adorning the gates of the seraglio.
The result of this grand campaign was to change the course of
General results
of the campaign.
history. Hitherto, as at Lepanto and at St. Gothard, the Ottoman arms
had never received more than a temporary check; from henceforward
we find the empire of the Sultan constantly losing ground in Europe. John Sobieski
had recovered in two months more than had been gained in a hundred years. The chief
explanation of this decline is doubtless internal decay; but the glory of the Polish hero
consists in the singleness of aim which enabled him in a moment of supreme danger to
disregard old enmities, and to fly to the defence of Western Christendom, then too
disunited to defend itself.
Poland gained more by this campaign than she was ready to
Advantages to
Poland.
confess. The Turks had for ever lost the offensive, and were so much
engaged in their conflict with the Empire, that they could not think of
revenging themselves upon the republic. But they still retained the fortress of
Kaminiec; and until this sore was closed, the danger seemed ever present. The
Cossacks however, from whom that danger had first arisen, now acknowledged the
king’s authority, and falling upon the Tartars as they returned from Vienna, routed
them with immense slaughter. But the renown procured by the victories of the king
was more advantageous still. Venice and Muscovy besought the honour of an alliance
with Poland; and she never stood higher among the nations than at this moment.
Civil troubles prevented John taking the field early the next year
Campaign of
1684. (1684).[121] In August, however, he marched into Podolia, and after
taking Jaslowicz, approached the walls of Kaminiec. Since he could
not hope to reduce it by blockade, his only resource was to erect a fort in the
neighbourhood; and this he effected in the face of the enemy, who dared not risk a
battle.
He returned to Zolkiew in November, dissatisfied with the results of the campaign.
At its outset he had been attended by numbers of distinguished
Jealousy of foreigners, anxious to serve under so great a prince, but he had found
John’s generals.
himself enfeebled by the lukewarm support of his two Grand
Generals, Jablonowski and Sapieha. Both were jealous of his monopolising the glory
by commanding in every campaign; but each of them had ulterior reasons.
Jablonowski was the chief of the faction of Louis XIV., who was straining every nerve
to gain over Poland; Sapieha dreamed of separating Lithuania from Poland, and
becoming sovereign of the Grand Duchy. In the ensuing Diet the faction of each had
its complaints against the king. The former blamed him for his ill-success against
Kaminiec; the latter accused him of depriving Lithuania of her rights by summoning
the Diet to meet at Warsaw instead of at Grodno. The Lithuanians at first refused to
attend it, but they yielded on the king’s proposal that it should be called the Diet of
Grodno. Their opposition to his plans, however, was relentless, and one of the family
of Paz[122] carried his abuse so far as to threaten to make him feel the weight of his
arm. Such was the treatment that was reserved for the saviour of Europe at the hands
of his own subjects!
His health had now become so feeble that in the next campaign
Unsuccessful (1685) he was able to gratify Jablonowski by leaving him in
campaign of
1685. command. His loss was at once keenly felt. Skilful though he was, the
Grand General allowed his army to be caught in a defile in the forest
of Bucovina, and it required all his ability to rescue it from utter annihilation.
Ashamed at his own pride no less than at his reverse he shunned the royal presence.
[123]
The zeal of the king for the cause of the Emperor was cooled about
Perfidy of
Leopold.
this time by the marriage of the archduchess, who had been promised
to Prince James, to the Elector of Bavaria. The queen[124] was
impelled by her resentment to join the French party, and Leopold had too much cause
to fear that she would induce John to make a separate peace. He
Father Vota.
therefore sent a Jesuit named Vota as his secret agent to the court of
Warsaw. The mission of the holy father was not openly political; his journey was
supposed to have been undertaken to convert the heretics of the Greek church; but the
Emperor trusted that his literary and social talents would procure him an ascendancy
over the king of Poland. He is described as a man of wide knowledge and wonderful
powers of conversation; and his religious habits and unobtrusive demeanour preserved
him from suspicion. He devoted himself to the king’s pleasure, and often slept on the
floor of an ante-chamber in order to be at hand to entertain his weary hours. He easily
kept him faithful to the league against the infidel, and hinted that the provinces of
Moldavia and Wallachia might, if subdued by his arms, become hereditary in his
family. John knew well that they would merely become provinces of Poland; but he
was anxious to extend her frontiers to the shores of the Black Sea. In
The king tries to
revive
spite of the opposition of the nobles he wished to revive her
commerce. commerce; and a mercantile treaty which he contemplated with
Holland would have been assisted by the acquisition of a double sea-front.
By a treaty with Muscovy in this year (1686) he gave up Kiow and
Treaty with Smolensko, which had been long in her possession, for a large
Muscovy.
indemnity, and obtained promises of co-operation in his schemes of
conquest. Posterity has blamed him for these concessions; but in his time such was the
national contempt for the Muscovites that no danger was apprehended on their side.
His chances of success were excellent. The Emperor promised his
Campaign of aid on the side of Hungary; and a great army of Muscovites was to
1686.
push forward to the Black Sea. After arranging his plans with the
Imperial generals, John assembled his forces at the Dniester, but he found all alike,
officers and men, indisposed to a campaign beyond the borders of Poland. But he
could not now draw back. He advanced through the deserts of Moldavia to the Pruth,
passing on his way the fatal spot where Zolkiewski met with a hero’s death.
Descending the river he entered Yassy, the capital, on the 15th of August, and found
that the hospodar had fled with his troops, but had left provisions for the invading
force, thinking by this means to secure his immunity from punishment, whatever
might be the result of the campaign. After two days of rest John pushed on towards
the Black Sea. But the heat, the scarcity of water, and the terrible solitude[125] broke
the spirit of his army, and suddenly the Tartars appeared in his front. News also
arrived that the Turks were within a march of him, and there was no sign either of
Muscovite or Austrian succours. Leopold had again deceived him, and had profited by
John’s demonstration to capture the city of Buda. There was nothing left but to retreat,
and this the king successfully accomplished, through a most difficult country, in the
face of the enemy. The Tartars poisoned the rivers and springs, and set fire to the
vegetation, while searching clouds of dust and ashes distressed the retiring Poles. At
length they reached the frontiers of Poland; and the only person who had reaped any
benefit from their sufferings was the Emperor Leopold.
In the following year a revolution at Constantinople, provoked by
Deposition of the
Sultan.
continued disasters, deprived Mahomet IV. of his throne; and had
there been a complete accord between the members of the Christian
league, the Ottoman empire might have tottered to its fall. No soldier of the Church
had laboured more steadily towards this end than John Sobieski; and if it was not
realised, the fault lay not with him but with his more powerful allies.
As his reign drew near its close, the internal disorders of his
Polish anarchy.
kingdom increased. The Emperor never ceased to intrigue with the
Lithuanian grandees against his faithful ally, and the French party opposed him for
this fidelity to the league. The lesser nobility was devoted to him; but the Senate was
now the hotbed of faction. All the grandees wished for the end of his reign, the French
party because they disliked his policy, and the Lithuanians because they hated his
person. Besides this, every ambitious senator looked to an interregnum as a means of
realising his dreams of power.
In the Diet of Grodno in 1688 the king was assailed on all sides.
Diet of Grodno.
The senators[126] in the pay of France clamoured for peace with the
Porte; the Lithuanians, at a hint from the Emperor, accused him of personal aims in his
attempt upon Moldavia. Before any subsidy could be voted the Diet was dissolved by
the veto; and when the king assembled a convocation he met with the same stormy
opposition. Hastily dismissing the assembly, he submitted to a period of inaction; but
he had the consolation of finding, on a visit to Wilna in the same year, that even in the
Grand Duchy he was regarded by the people with admiration.
A fresh outburst from the French party occurred in the same
John refuses summer, when he refused to make peace with the Sultan, although he
peace with the
Turks. was offered the restoration of Kaminiec. He had bound himself by
oath never to make a separate peace without the consent of his allies;
but to keep strictly to this article was detrimental to the republic, so sorely in need of
reforms, and he had abundant excuse for breaking it in the conduct of the Emperor.
His scruples were not suggested by a desire for further glory, or by
Tries to establish
a blindness to the true interests of Poland. His days of warfare were
hereditary
succession. past for ever. He saw only too clearly the failure of the old
constitution, and he was anxious before his death to witness the
establishment of hereditary monarchy. In striving to have his son declared his
successor he was not actuated by merely selfish motives, for when a subject he had
held the same principles.[127] But the grandees considered such a proposal as a direct
infringement of their privileges; and they were encouraged by Leopold, who found it
his interest to preserve Poland in a state of fermentation.
The king intended to ask this of the republic at the Diet of Grodno;
Affecting scene
in the senate.
but his intention becoming known, he was assailed with the utmost
virulence in the senate. The Grand Treasurer termed him despot,
tyrant, and destructor of the public liberty; a palatine spoke of him as the enemy of his
country. At length the king rose and addressed the senate. He recalled the patriotism
and services of his ancestors, and protested his devotion to the cause of liberty. But he
begged his hearers to pause, and reflect on the consequences of intestine strife. “Oh,
what will be one day the sad surprise of posterity to see that at the summit of our
glory, when the name of Poland was filling the universe, we have allowed our country
to fall in ruins, to fall, alas! for ever! For myself I have now and then gained you a few
battles; but I confess myself deprived of all power to save you. It only remains for me
to resign, not to destiny, for I am a Christian, but to the great and mighty God, the
future of my beloved country.... I seem to hear already resounding over our heads the
cry of the prophet: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.’ Your most
illustrious Dominations know that I do not believe in auguries. I do not search out
oracles; I give no credence to dreams; it is not an oracle, it is faith which teaches me
that the decrees of Providence cannot fail to be accomplished.”
During this prophetic speech the voice of the old king trembled with emotion, and
the senate was deeply touched. The primate knelt at the foot of the throne, and assured
him of the loyalty of Poland; and a cry of assent arose from all present. The subsidies
were voted by acclamation; but it was only a transient gleam of concord. Next year
there were rumours of a conspiracy to dethrone the king; and amid
Continued
disturbances.
the storms of the Diet a bishop named Opalinski said to him
haughtily, “Be equitable, or cease to reign!” The insult was soon
followed by an apology; but the tumult continued in the assembly, and sabres were
freely used before the veto terminated the disgraceful scene.[128] The king felt himself
unable to cope with these terrible disorders, and he instructed his
Intended chancellor to prepare an act of abdication (1689); but the unfeigned
abdication of
Sobieski. sorrow of all classes persuaded him to withdraw it. There was little
improvement, however, in the temper of future Diets; and the veto
was employed as freely as before.
John was not more happy in his domestic than in his public life.
Discord in his His imperious queen was ever his evil genius. Not content with
family.
diminishing his popularity by mixing too freely in public affairs,[129]
she sowed dissension round his own fireside. The king evidently designed for his
successor his eldest son James; for, besides giving him a high command in the army,
he allowed him to sit by his side in the senate. But the queen favoured Alexander, her
second son, who was more handsome and popular[130] than his brother, and her open
partiality produced a fierce hatred between the two brothers. When the Emperor,
reminded of the value of John’s friendship by the victories of Mustapha Köprili, gave
the Princess of Neuberg in marriage to Prince James[131] (1690), the queen took a
violent dislike to her daughter-in-law; and the family breach was widened.
Next year the king took the field for the last time, nominally to
His last chastise the Tartars for an invasion in the winter, but really perhaps to
campaign, in
1691. escape the miseries of his court. He took with him for the first time
his son Alexander, and this so exasperated Prince James that he
threatened to leave the country. The king told him that if he went he would take with
him a father’s curse, and he was persuaded to repent and ask pardon for his violence.
His father said openly that in the ensuing campaign he should more easily get the
better of the enemy than of his own sons. He gained a victory at Pererita (August 6),
and took a few places in Moldavia, and then returned to his kingdom never to leave it
more.
He spent his last years in retirement, and seldom appeared in public
His love of
retirement.
except in the Diet. His palace of Willanow was his favourite
residence, and from thence in the summer he would roam from castle
to castle, sometimes pitching his tent, like his nomad forefathers, wherever a
picturesque spot or a noble landscape attracted his fancy. The queen would have
preferred the gaieties of Warsaw; but she followed him into his solitude, and took care
that balls, operas, and the other amusements of a court should be going on around him.
His chief recreation now, as in his most difficult campaigns, was
His literary
tastes.
the study of the sciences. He complains to the queen, after the battle
of Vienna, that with all his love of reading he has not had a book in
his hand for more than three weeks.[132] When he read he always had a pencil in his
hand, and his marginal notes displayed uncommon powers of mind. Dr. South—no
mean judge—pronounces him to be “very opulently stored with all polite and
scholastical learning.” He was fond of writing Polish poetry, and when his daughter
Theresa married the Elector of Bavaria he presented her with a copy of verses on the
event.[133] Like many others of the Slav race, he was an accomplished linguist. He
could converse with ease in six languages, including Latin,[134] and learnt Spanish
when he was past fifty. His delight was to assemble around him cultivated men like
Father Vota, the French Ambassador Cardinal Polignac, and his physicians, Connor
and Jonas, and to “set them very artfully by the ears”[135] on some question of
philosophy or natural science.[136] Nor was theology forgotten. He used to give
audiences to the schismatic bishops, and listen patiently to their arguments for their
respective creeds.
Such a prince was of course an ardent patron of learning. During
Patron of his reign more books issued from the Polish press than in the two
learning.
centuries preceding; and his liberal views led him to reprimand the
Catholic clergy for not admitting into their schools the philosophy of Descartes. The
great nobles, many of them wholly unlettered, could not sympathise
Spite of the with these literary tastes, and they showed their spite towards the king
nobles.
in various ways. On one occasion, when illness kept him away from
the Diet, the Sapiehas demanded that he should be summoned to attend; and when
their motion was lost, they broke up the assembly with the veto. A Jew named
Bethsal, who collected his revenues, was condemned to death by the Diet on an
unproved charge of sacrilege,[137] and John could hardly prevail to save his life. Many
imputed his love of retirement to covetousness, and asserted that he
Charge of
covetousness
laid up £100,000 a year for the benefit of his sons.[138] The accusation
unproved. has been often repeated, although his life abounds in instances of his
draining his private[139] coffers to serve a pressing public need.
The disorders of the kingdom grew more frightful as John became less able to
restrain them. Street brawls between political parties had always been of common
occurrence, but the rioters now began to use firearms,[140] and the king had to publish
an edict prohibiting the shedding of blood on pain of death. He often sent for the chief
nobles, and adjured them by the love of their country to aid him in restoring order.[141]
In 1695 the Tartars, tempted by Polish anarchy and by a report of the king’s death,
invaded Russia, and besieged Leopol; but they disappeared as quickly as they had
come on the approach of Sobieski.
Reports of his death were common in Europe, partly from his
His feeble
health.
feeble health and partly from the interest which many sovereigns felt
in the event.[142] He had long been afflicted with dropsy; and a wound
in his head, which he had received long before in the Cossack war, now caused serious
alarm.
The queen was most anxious that he should make his will, and she
Schemes of the
queen.
deputed her Chancellor, Bishop Zaluski, to make the proposal. The
king received it with disfavour. “I am surprised,” he said, “that a man
of your sense and worth should thus waste your time. Can you expect anything good
of the times in which we live? Look at the inundation of vice, the contagion of folly;
and should we believe in the execution of our last wishes? In life we command and are
not obeyed. Would it be otherwise in death?” Soon after the queen entered, and read in
the face of the bishop the failure of her plan. Zaluski tells us that the next day the king
complained bitterly to him of the bodily sufferings brought on by a dose of mercury
which she had given him. His frame was shaken by convulsive sobs, and he exclaimed
wildly, “Will there be no one to avenge my death?” This was probably only the raving
of a distempered brain; but the queen has never been exempt from suspicion, and her
conduct after his death only served to confirm it.
On the 17th of June, 1696, his seventy-second birthday,[143] he lay
His illness,
at Willanow in a state of dreadful weakness. He asked the news from
Warsaw, and was told that multitudes were flocking to the churches to pray for his
recovery. The intelligence affected him deeply, and he passed the day in cheerful
conversation; but towards evening he was seized with an attack of apoplexy.[144] The
chief officers hastened to his chamber, and when he awoke to a short interval of
consciousness he showed how eager he was to depart by pronouncing the words
“Stava bene.” Soon afterwards, about sunset, he breathed his last, and
And death. his death, like his birth, was followed by a sudden and frightful
storm.
Only a few of the nobles welcomed his decease; the mass of the
Sorrow of the nation remembered his glory, and sincerely mourned his loss. The
nation.
Chancellor Zaluski thus expresses the general sorrow: “With this
Atlas has fallen, in my eyes at least (may I prove a false prophet!), the republic itself.
We seem not so much to have lost him as to have descended with him into the tomb.
At least I have but too much cause to fear that it is all over with our power. At this
news the grief is universal. In the streets men accost each other with tears, and those
who do not weep are yet terrified at the fate which is in store for us. Terror apart, what
grief was ever more natural? He is, perhaps, the first king in whose reign not one drop
of blood has been shed in reparation of his own wrongs. He had but one single fault—
he was not immortal.”
Amidst such heartfelt sorrow the behaviour of his family alienated
Quarrels of his from them all public sympathy. Prince James at first refused to admit
family.
the queen with the royal corpse to the castle of Warsaw, and when at
length he yielded, he hurried away to Zolkiew to seize his father’s treasures. The
queen hastened after him to put in her claim, but he turned the cannon of that fortress
against her. Burning with indignation, she exerted all her influence before she left the
country[145] to destroy his chances of the crown. Such was the magic of his father’s
name that at first there was a large party in his favour; but the family quarrels
weakened and dispersed it. The Austrian party elected Augustus of Saxony; and the
French party thought it necessary to protest by seizing the remains of the late king.
The Elector, resolved not to be out-manœuvred, erected a cenotaph to the memory of
John III.; and it was not till the next reign, thirty-six years later, that his body received
interment.[146]
The history of his three sons deserves a word of remark. Charles
His sons.
XII., who as a boy was a devoted admirer of John Sobieski,[147]
invaded Poland in 1705, and would have offered the crown to Prince James; but the
prince, being then in Germany with his brother Constantine, was seized by the Saxon
troops, and honourably confined at Leipsic; and, as his brother Alexander nobly
refused to profit by his misfortune, the opportunity passed by. Alexander died at Rome
as a capuchin, and his two brothers resided in Poland on their estates. James Sobieski
had two daughters, of whom the younger, Maria Clementina, was married to the
Chevalier St. George, called the “Old Pretender,” and became the mother of the
unhappy Charles Edward.
The life and exploits of John Sobieski have in modern times scarcely received their
due meed of attention. Born in a country half civilized, half
Character of barbarous, whose independence has now been completely effaced, his
John Sobieski, glory has not proved so enduring as that of less remarkable men who
have figured on a more conspicuous stage. As general, as patriot, and
as Christian hero, he will bear comparison with the greatest names in any age. No man
ever won so many battles in the most desperate situations; no man
As general. ever achieved such deeds with forces often insignificant and always
unruly. His fertility of resource was amazing; yet it was only equal to the swiftness of
his execution. His chief glory is that, unlike any other great conqueror, his grandest
triumphs were obtained in defensive warfare, and that all his efforts were directed
either to the salvation of his country or to the honour of his religion.
As patriot. His individual greatness appears most striking in the ascendancy
which he early acquired in his own country. His frank and simple bearing, his noble
mien, and his stirring eloquence, enabled him, while he was still a subject, to sway the
minds and wills of his fellow-countrymen as if by an irresistible charm. He laboured
for the safety of Poland with a perfect singleness of aim; and when
As Christian that was fully secured, he strove with a like fixity of purpose for the
hero.
destruction of the Ottoman power. To us his crusading ardour may
seem to have been out of date, but we must remember that in the seventeenth century
the Turks still inspired a lively alarm, and that if at the present day we regard them
with pity or contempt, the first step towards this change was accomplished by the
sword of John Sobieski.
As a king, he is not entitled to the same high praise. In a land of
As king. peace and order he might have ranked as a benefactor to his people,
but in the home of licence and anarchy his temper was too gentle and refined to
employ the severity which was needed. A king of Poland, if he was to heal the
disorders of his realm, must first have made himself feared; the natural temperament
of Sobieski made him prefer to be loved. Clemency and generous forgiveness were
parts of his disposition;[148] and the necessary result upon his policy was that he
resigned himself too easily to bear the vexations which surrounded him. When he did
act, his method was most unwise; for in his principal attempt at reform—when he
aimed at establishing hereditary succession—he exposed himself to the charge of a
grasping self-interest.
But we cannot acquit him of deplorable weakness in the
As head of his management of his own family. A hasty passion had thrown him into
family.
the power of an unscrupulous and despotic woman, and his uxorious
fondness left her only too much scope for the activity of her caprice. We have seen
more than once that he could oppose her when his duty seemed clearly marked out for
him; but, for the sake of his own peace, he allowed her to intermeddle without ceasing
in the affairs of Poland. The only result of his indulgence was that very misery in his
domestic circle which he had sought to avoid. Of the charge against him of avarice we
have already spoken. His chivalrous enthusiasm and cultivated intelligence would
have gone far to disprove it, even if the treasure which he left behind him had not been
found to be only moderate.
His services to his country were extraordinary, although he himself confessed that
he could not arrest her fall. He found her at the opening of his career
His great plunged in civil strife and beset with foreign enemies; he left her at its
services,
close with peace fully assured to her, and with her glory at its zenith.
Within two years of his death the peace of Carlowitz was signed with the Turks, by
which they renounced all claim to Kaminiec, Podolia, and the Ukraine. The fruit of his
victories was thus fully reaped; but his efforts to revive commerce and to form an
infantry among the serfs, which would have been the first step to their emancipation,
were never afterwards renewed. A patriot life like his may be said to
Could only have tried the institutions of his country, and to have found them
retard the fall of
Poland. wanting. After seventy-five years of anarchy, that dreaded Partition,
which had been mooted in his day[149] but which he had postponed
for a hundred years, was at length carried into effect. Austria, whom he had saved by
his prowess, Prussia, whom he had hoped to reunite to his country, Russia, whom his
ancestor[150] had laid at her feet—each took a share of the spoil. No other patriot arose
to save Poland from her rapid decline; and John Sobieski may be called the last, as he
was the greatest, of her independent kings.
Oxford: A. Thomas Shrimpton and Son, 23 and 24, Broad Street.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] The burghers, however, were under a separate civil jurisdiction. A

tribunal for administering this foreign or Teutonic law was established in
1347 in six principal towns.
[2] Poland in the seventeenth century measured 2600 miles in
circumference, while France measured only 2040.
[3] Cosmography, by Peter Heylin, published in 1648, reprinted from his
Microcosmus, published in 1621.
[4] Relatione di Polonia (1598), quoted by Ranke (App. No. 66 to his
History of the Popes). The same Nuncio says the Poles confessed to him that
they preferred a weak monarch to an able one.
[5] The whole of the country called Prussia once belonged to Poland. Part
of it, after being lost in the eleventh century, eventually came into the hands
of the Elector of Brandenburg, who acknowledged the nominal suzerainty of
Poland; the other part—Polish Prussia—was not lost till the eighteenth
century.
[6] See Dr. South’s letter to Dr. Edward Pococke, Hebrew lecturer at
Oxford, describing his travels in Poland. (p 71.) He mentions that he had
heard them make this remark: and it is curious that his letter bears date Dec.
16th, 1677—six years before the relief of Vienna.
[7] This is denied by Salvandy, Histoire du Roi Jean Sobieski, vol. ii. p. 52,
ed. 1876, though he has elsewhere admitted it by implication (vol. i. p. 402-
3).
[8] The generals had no seat in the Senate by virtue of their office, but the
king always made them palatines or castellans. D , Polish
Manuscripts or Secret History of the reign of John Sobieski, ch. i. p. 9.
[9] D , ch. i. p. 34.
[10] The first was simply “veto,” the second “veto, sisto activitatem.”
[11] They were always prolonged, however, when public business was
pressing.
[12] This castellan ranked even above all the palatines, and headed the
Pospolite. The story is that in an important battle the palatine of Cracow ran
away, while the castellan stood his ground, and their rank was thus reversed.
(C , Histoire de Sobieski, p. 69, 8vo ed.)
[13] The Abbé Coyer makes her his daughter; but he is wrong. The
daughter of Zolkiewski married into the family of Danilowicz, and was the
mother of Theophila. (S , vol. i. 145-147.)
[14] The disparity is said to have been much greater, but it is necessary to
bear in mind throughout the life of Sobieski that the numbers of the

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Solution We need to calculate the energy associated with the reaction

E = [mn + m(238Pu) − m(239Pu)]c2

E = (1000 kg) × (9.8 m/s2) × (1000 m) = 9.8 × 106 J

(b) From Einstein's relation E = mc2 we find

E = (1000 kg) × (3 × 108 m/s)2 = 9 × 1019 J

6.3 Some possible process for induced fission of 235U are

For each of these processes determine the number of emitted neutrons, x.

fission products sum of N x

0.0072 × 235 + 0.9928 × 238 = 238.97 g/mol

(1000 kg) × (0.0072 × 235)/(237.97) = 7.11 kg

This quantity of 235U will contain

[(7110 g)/(235 g/mol)] × (6.02×1023 atoms/mol) = 1.82 × 1025 atoms

(1.82×1025) × (180 MeV) = 3.28 × 1027 MeV

(3.28 × 1027 MeV) × (1.6 × 10–13 J/MeV) = 5.25 × 1014 J.

Solution The radiation decay law is

t1/ 2 = 30y , then  = 0.023y −1 .

The decay rate is given by the equation

Since │dN(0)/dt│ = λN(0) then this can be written as

│dN(t)/dt│ = │dN(0)/dt│ e–λt

So substituting for │dN(0)/dt│ = 1014s–1,  = 0.023y −1 and t = 100 y, gives

dN(t)/dt = (1014) × [exp(−0.023 × 100)] = 1.0 × 1013 decays per second.

Oxford: A. Thomas Shrimpton and Son, 23 and 24, Broad Street.

[1] The burghers, however, were under a separate civil jurisdiction. A

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